That is a problem. I generally deal with small local buyers, but it’s easier when they have relatively stable needs and expect to be able to buy more or less the same product at more or less the same price, year after year. I think that’s going to be less viable as the effects of climate change continue to unfold. What worked ten years ago won’t work today, and what works today may not work ten years from now.
Something I’ve been thinking about is how to have an internet farmers’ market that doesn’t suck. It’s a logistical nightmare even before getting to things like food safety and disease tracking. Since cyclospora has been in the news I’ve been wondering how to have a better food distribution network that large-scale and small-scale buyers can get local produce from, and hopefully, with enough small-ish producers distributed over a wide area, the product offerings will be stable enough to attract enough buyers to cover the overhead of storage and distribution, quality and safety controls, etc.
But I do think there will have to be a cultural shift. There will still be staple crops, but I think which staples grow where is going to change and keep changing, as will which staples are the most economical for people in a given area. I think that’s a mindset shift that will be hard to pull off as long as we keep treating this like a problem we can address tomorrow, because acknowledging that I need to change my eating habits is an acknowledgement that it’s a big problem and it’s here today. It’ll happen eventually as staple prices get more and more unmoored from their historical patterns, but the sooner we can build a climate-change-acknowledging food infrastructure system, and get people on board with it, the blunter the impact will be.
Two of the places I’ve lived (US) have had awesome co-op distribution systems for local farmers to distribute food. The first was in Tennessee in a suburbanish area. A nonprofit coordinated pickups from farms in the area and rented a small storefront in the historic downtown with fridges. Weekly you could shop online for local produce, dairy, meat, and even some baked goods. I was a student and was grateful they took food stamps!
I’ve found a similar situation where I am now (big city). Another farm co-op where a non-profit facilitates the transportation and storefront, but this one only offers produce. Instead of picking up at a central location the food is dropped off at host houses locally for pickup.
For years I’ve had the looming suspicion that a thoughtfully engineered logistics logic could make a huge difference in grassroots organizing for food security. We need logistics that connect resources to need. We need it to be well organized and easy to contribute to with well defined roles whether it be by committing to grow food, lending equipment for transportation, or driving goods from A to B. Current logistics logic caters to giant factory farms and mega corps.
That’s pretty cool. Do you remember the name of the one in TN? That’s where I am and I’d love to talk with them. I know a few growers’ co-ops and farmers’ markets, but nothing like that. Would be cool to get involved.
I agree, I think logistics is something that benefits from scale and it’s a small part of what makes megafarms able to outcompete a more diverse field of small producers. And regardless of scale, it’s just something that’s hard to reason about and a lot of farmers are bad at it. If I can put together a model distribution cooperative that allows farmers to filter in, and up, and out of the industry as they age, and doesn’t just entrench a new power structure that’s just as bad as the one it meant to replace, I think we as a species will be a lot better able to weather what’s coming.
That is a problem. I generally deal with small local buyers, but it’s easier when they have relatively stable needs and expect to be able to buy more or less the same product at more or less the same price, year after year. I think that’s going to be less viable as the effects of climate change continue to unfold. What worked ten years ago won’t work today, and what works today may not work ten years from now.
Something I’ve been thinking about is how to have an internet farmers’ market that doesn’t suck. It’s a logistical nightmare even before getting to things like food safety and disease tracking. Since cyclospora has been in the news I’ve been wondering how to have a better food distribution network that large-scale and small-scale buyers can get local produce from, and hopefully, with enough small-ish producers distributed over a wide area, the product offerings will be stable enough to attract enough buyers to cover the overhead of storage and distribution, quality and safety controls, etc.
But I do think there will have to be a cultural shift. There will still be staple crops, but I think which staples grow where is going to change and keep changing, as will which staples are the most economical for people in a given area. I think that’s a mindset shift that will be hard to pull off as long as we keep treating this like a problem we can address tomorrow, because acknowledging that I need to change my eating habits is an acknowledgement that it’s a big problem and it’s here today. It’ll happen eventually as staple prices get more and more unmoored from their historical patterns, but the sooner we can build a climate-change-acknowledging food infrastructure system, and get people on board with it, the blunter the impact will be.
Two of the places I’ve lived (US) have had awesome co-op distribution systems for local farmers to distribute food. The first was in Tennessee in a suburbanish area. A nonprofit coordinated pickups from farms in the area and rented a small storefront in the historic downtown with fridges. Weekly you could shop online for local produce, dairy, meat, and even some baked goods. I was a student and was grateful they took food stamps!
I’ve found a similar situation where I am now (big city). Another farm co-op where a non-profit facilitates the transportation and storefront, but this one only offers produce. Instead of picking up at a central location the food is dropped off at host houses locally for pickup.
For years I’ve had the looming suspicion that a thoughtfully engineered logistics logic could make a huge difference in grassroots organizing for food security. We need logistics that connect resources to need. We need it to be well organized and easy to contribute to with well defined roles whether it be by committing to grow food, lending equipment for transportation, or driving goods from A to B. Current logistics logic caters to giant factory farms and mega corps.
That’s pretty cool. Do you remember the name of the one in TN? That’s where I am and I’d love to talk with them. I know a few growers’ co-ops and farmers’ markets, but nothing like that. Would be cool to get involved.
I agree, I think logistics is something that benefits from scale and it’s a small part of what makes megafarms able to outcompete a more diverse field of small producers. And regardless of scale, it’s just something that’s hard to reason about and a lot of farmers are bad at it. If I can put together a model distribution cooperative that allows farmers to filter in, and up, and out of the industry as they age, and doesn’t just entrench a new power structure that’s just as bad as the one it meant to replace, I think we as a species will be a lot better able to weather what’s coming.
Stones River Market, out of Murfreesboro! I think they’re still up and running.
Hopefully with enough of us thinking about these things the dots will eventually connect.
Thanks! Looks like they are still going, I’ll check 'em out.